March 26, 2010

Review: Nabob Skinny Latte T-Discs for Tassimo

Nabob uses a combination of their espresso T-Discs and the usual latte milk creamer T-Discs which are common among most latte varieties such as those offered by Maxwell House & Gevalia... only this time, they've decided to follow suit and give people a healthier choice with their own Nabob Skinny Latte T-Discs. These have apparently just been released on the Canadian market within the past few weeks.

The skinny latte creamer is now composed of skim milk concentrate which Nabob claims has 56% fewer calories than their regular latte creamer (packaging shows 35 calories total & 0g of fat). We found it lost most of its buttery taste and seemed more akin to evaporated skim milk. As we've reported in the past, we don't personally dislike the taste of the original creamers, but thought Kraft still had some room for improvement. The same holds even more true with this "skinny" version, but more on that later.

As far as lattes go, we've been noticing a rather peculiar trend... North American latte creamer T-Discs yield far less drink volume than the European latte creamer T-Discs. They also appear to produce a bit less froth. If we compare Jacobs' Latte Macchiato T-Discs to these skinny latte T-Discs, we find that the Jacobs yields almost a full 12 to 16oz serving while Nabob only offers us 8oz here. At first we thought this was part of the whole "skinny" aspect of the drink to help cut down calories via a smaller serving, but we recently tried Gevalia's Caramel Latte Macchiato T-Discs (which we'll be reviewing soon) and noticed roughly the same 8oz serving with those as well. What's up with that? An effort to create a stronger drink perhaps?

The aroma this time around offers a lot more of the espresso's scent than the creamer's scent. We were wondering why until we tasted the drink... wow... looks like Nabob kicked-up the strength of their espressos a notch. MUCH stronger taste than we remembered from past experiences. Since we had prepared the drink "macchiato style", we decided to stir the contents in order to get more of the creamer's taste distributed evenly throughout... only to notice there was practically none. The skim milk unfortunately resulted in a much more watered-down drink than we were expecting, plus we're not sure if any artificial sweetener was added, but it left us with a strange saccharin aftertaste... much as if we had dumped a pack of Sweet'n Low into the drink. Mouth feel is unfortunately on the watery side, but the body still retains the same characteristics of a regular latte.

Aroma – 5 – The opposite of the regular latte... the espresso's strong scent masks any traces of scent from the creamer, but that's not necessarily a bad thing since this is a stronger espresso than before.

Acidity – 4 – The creamer helps to subdue most of the acidity of the espresso, however, there’s still a tiny hint of acidity in the background.

Body – 8 – Standard beige latte color, medium layer of froth which quickly dissipates after a few minutes. Final appearance varies depending on how you prepare the drink. Could use a slightly thicker froth.

Flavor – 3 – A much stronger espresso which we enjoyed but the watery nature of the creamer just diluted the drink to a point where it didn't seem rich anymore. We were kind of put off by the saccharin aftertaste. Kraft really needs to work on improving their skinny creamers.

Mouth Feel –2 – Despite being a stronger espresso, some of the bite is buried underneath the creamer. Despite the description of "velvety", the only thing we kept thinking was "watery".

Coffee Drinker – Despite being aimed at the calorie-conscious market, this drink is best suited for casual coffee drinkers or those who are looking for lighter, more subdued drinks.

Overall Rating: 70 - Poor

We understand this is a "skinny" drink and as such, Nabob had to cut certain corners in order to drastically drop the amount of fat & calories in the drink, but would it have killed them to add a bit more of the buttery taste which was present in their regular creamers? We feel this is where the drink comes up short and will be the major turning point as to whether or not people will want to keep this drink in their standard rotation of Tassimo T-Discs. For those who despise the taste of the original creamer, you might actually prefer this skinny version as that taste is all but gone here, only to be replaced with the more pronounced espresso. We now understand the 8oz serving size... any more water would have rendered this way too diluted & undrinkable. We're sure some of you will heartily disagree with our point of view, but we stand by our review nonetheless.

Nabob's Skinny Latte T-Discs will work in all Tassimo models (it even says so on the packaging) & as far as we're aware, they're only available in various grocery stores across Canada and www.tassimo.ca. Pricing is $5.99 CAD in grocery stores & online for 16 discs (8 espresso + 8 milk creamers). We would like to thank our Canadian correspondent Shawn (a.k.a. SH), for sending us a package of these T-Discs for the purpose of this review.

Thomas Davie: DRM; still no purchase by me (and I suspect many read moreVJS: Rather loud pop this morning followed by a cloud of read moreAshley: Worst Coffee Ever! Especially the breakfast blend. It hurt my read moreVicki: It says on the package to serve with cream, milk,sweetener read moreAO: The marketing they put on these boxes of K-Cups never read more